Pink mania: everything you need to know about the colour of the moment
Happy times these for those who, like me, have always loved pink. You may not have been able to help but notice how this color is depopulating, but don’t be fooled, becaus that of the pink is not a tendency destined to die at the same speed with which it was born, but a long and controversial story.
It was the first half of the 1700s, in the middle of the Rococo period, when pink became fashionable for the first time thanks to the historical lover of Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour, who loved so much the color that, in 1757, Sèvres, one of the most famous porcelain manufactures, dedicated to her the name of its new shade of pink: the Rose Pompadour.
From that moment the whole aristocracy began to use this nuance, appreciated equally by the courtiers and courtesans of all the courts of Europe. It was also the favorite color of the so-called Macaroni, young English aristocrats who, returning from the Grand Tour, brought home an eccentric and decidedly over-the-top trend for the time, to the point of being derided and considered ridiculous.
Not only before the nineteenth century rose was not automatically associated with femininity, as it happens today, but, on the contrary, considered the younger brother of red, expressed strength, manhood and military qualities: indisputably male characteristics. On the contrary, blue, evoking the color of the veil of the Virgin Mary, was synonymous with a delicacy and a feminine grace.
Scenario, this, destined to change soon. In an England at the dawn of the Second Industrial Revolution and from there, by domino effect, throughout the Western world, what is now known as "The great male renunciation" revolutionized the wardrobe of men, by virtue of an era devoted to sobriety, to reason and control: goodbye pink, as well as many other pastel tones, and welcome bourgeois uniform from strictly dark shades, which reflected the industriousness and moral integrity of modern man.
That same industrialization, with the consequent spread of chemical industrial colors, on the other hand, filled the female wardrobe of the most disparate shades of pink: it is from this moment that the color takes on the meaning that has preserved until today, becoming synonymous with woman and femininity. The multiple shades of pink available reflected the various female stereotypes: the baby pink, discreet and elegant, was chosen by wealthy bourgeois women for their day dresses, while the most intense shades recalled an ideal of vampire woman, seductive and tempting, and was in fact used for the lingerie of prostitutes.
The sexualization of the rose, however, sees, its true apogee in the most recent past. In the first post-war period, Coco Chanel and Christian Dior chose the shades, the first to match it with little black dresses, the second for iconic creations such as the Venus. On a decidedly more bold tone, however, falls the taste of Elsa Schiapparelli, who in 1937 baptized shocking pink and elected it to her fetish color.
However, the 50s are the golden age of pink: from La vie en rose, through Haute Couture, to Barbie, color is everywhere and in all its shades. To strengthen the association rose-femininity came the first lady Mamie Einsenhower, who in 1953 for the inaugural ball at the White House wore a huge pink dress studded with rhinestones, followed in the 60s by Jacqueline Kennedy and her pink dress stained with blood and signed Chanel. The charm of this color also seduces the world of Hollywood, where we find Marilyn Monroe in fuchsia in Genetlemen prefer blondes and Audrey Hapburn in Funny Face, accompanied by the famous song "Think pink".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbxXA70gvrA
But if there is a decade that has really become synonymous with pink, this is the first of the 2000s, when the shade has officially become a symbol of an unprecedented frivolity and hedonism, recently re-appropriated and reinterpreted: today we talk about Barbiecore, a wave of pink that is literally invading our social feeds... and our closets.
The announcement of a film to be released in 2023 on the life of Barbie, whose role will inevitably be played by Margot Robbie, who we find garish on the front seat of a pink convertible, on a pink background, has certainly played its part in this rampant mania. Barbara Millicent Roberts, for friends Barbie, back to inspire giving us once again, after twenty years, the american dream: and who are we not to let our inner Barbie sing with the same conviction "Life in plastic, it’s fantastic"?
It is certain that the Barbiecore saw the light long before the news of a film about the life of the famous doll leaked. It was in fact the year 2000 when Tyra Banks has taken on the aesthetics of Barbie in the Disney film Life-Size, followed the following year by Reese Witherspoon as a barbie girl in a lawyers' world in the movie A blonde's revange. And how to forget Regina George and her minions in Mean Girls and their "On Wednesdays we wear pink"?
But luckily, for lovers of nuance, today you don’t have to wait for Wednesday. Every day is perfect to dress in pink, and in any version you want: elegant, dandy, pop, printed, embroidered and so on and so forth.
But if at the time pink was mostly attributed to the most vain girls, today the color takes on a totally different connotation. Chosen in its most decisive and presumptuous nuance, the Hot Pink becomes
a symbol of strength and self-confidence, and to prove it arrive celebrities, also they now sucked by the pink vortex, that is waiting to overwhelm those who are still unscathed: by the sisters Jenner Kardashian and Hailey Bieber, passing through Gigi Hadid, Zendaya and Dua Lipa, the power of pink also came from the Duchess of Cabridge Kate Middleton. And women are not alone, in fact among the positive aspects of this rampant pink mania there is definitely the genderless twist: Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, Lewis Hamilton and Timotheé Chamalet, to name just a few, have elevated the nuance to their leading color in the choice of looks for any occasion, from street style to red carpet.
None of this would have been possible if haute couture hadn’t opened its doors. To open the dances was the parade for the S/S 2022 Jacquemus, in which Simon made parades the Hot Pink. However, if there is someone who has really consecrated this shade making it an absolute color, that was Pierpaolo Piccioli: if once to say red was to say Valentino, today the fashion house has decided to reinvent itself and rediscover in the pink the same strength once attributed to its symbolic color. Thus, in collaboration with Pantone, the creative director of the house has created a particular shade of shocking pink, the Pink PP, to which was dedicated the entire F/W 2022 collection presented in Paris last March 6. And references to nuance were not missing in the show The Beginning held in Rome, in the breathtaking setting of Piazza di Spagna.
Well, whoever you are and whatever you’re doing, this summer you can do it better by wearing something pink, which is no longer just a color, but a new way of feeling, expressing yourself and seeing things: who, in a gray world, doesn’t need to think pink?
